Quote:Medical research has shortchanged women for decades. This is particularly true of older women, leaving them without critically important information.

Many drugs widely prescribed to older adults were studied mostly in men, with results extrapolated to women. Consider the Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi, approved by the FDA last year after the manufacturer reported a 27% slower rate of cognitive decline in people who took the medication. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that sex differences were substantial: a 12% slowdown for women, compared with a 43% slowdown for men. And nearly two-thirds of older adults with Alzheimer’s are women.